Debt Consolidator

Archive for January, 2010

My credit score is not that good but I have a good paying job had to send family tons of money I live in a home now i rent with the buy option is there any company that will pay off my debts and finance my home that i have been living in for two years so that i can get out of debt is this possible.

It will depend on how much the home appraises for. You could possibly come out with extra money to pay off debts if the equity is there. If you are a member of a credit union, ask a loan officer.

I have very bad credit. At least 3000 dollars worth of credit card and doctors bills. I am wanting to pay this off, and try to rebuild my credit. After everything is paid off, how long before the creditors(actually collection agencies in my case) take the points of of your credit, and do they even do this? Will it really help if I pay it off, or am I doomed? I want to buy a new house, new car, and get a credit card, but I cant ( even though I make good money) before I get married- which should be soon. I see creit repair agencies and debt consolidators, but have heard they make matters worse. I would like to pay off my debts, but if it doesnt help my credit score-I feel like I could spend the money on other things.( I am a single mother, while I make good money-I dont have it to throw around). Does anyone know what I should do?
I would like to add, that I do not have a large amount of credit card debt-it is very small.Most of my debt is medical.I also am not in any way saying that I make a great deal of money- but it is a very good amount for my age and experience. I can afford to make PAYMENTS on these items posted to my credit, but as of this moment ( holidays and all) I cannot pay them off- all at once. Would my credit report list who I should pay in specific ? I doubt very seriously that I have marks against my credit that are false, but if so it is worth a try to send them the correct info. Thanks for all of your help !Keep the great answers coming! I am taking notes!

Get the bills paid down and make payments on time and things will get better; but it’ll be 7 years before the "bad" credit pops off the credit report

I need a reliable trustworthy debt consolidation service quickly. I’ve heard that most advertised agencies are to be avoided.

Try out A+ Financial their interest rates are really low and the payment are cheap. They even have free advisors come to your home to discuss it all with you. Depending on your debt ratio you might need a co-signer but it is a really good company… I went from paying 870/month on debt to 246/month for 5 years. Their rates are lower than 6%

monthly payment, but there are soo many companies that offer this…which are the best that offers this w/out charging and arm and a leg?

Be careful about doing this. It can negatively affect your credit score.

I have a $5000 bill with a state university and must have it paid before I can attend classes. I’ve used my federal student loan eligibility, and have been told that federal student loans cannot be used to remove past bills anyways (nor can student loan consolidators take the debt).

I’m very close to graduating, just an error in judgement on my part caused a semester’s worth of student loans to be rescinded and the bill (with huge interest) has sat at the university for a few months without my knowledge.

So, I’d like to see if a standard debt consolidator would take the bill – and if not, where else I may turn. This is a pretty huge problem for me.

Before you run out and find another loan, and I’d start with a bank for a personal loan or an alternative student loan–SallieMae, I think, has one that can be used for prior year educational debt up to two or three years after the debt is incurred, btw, rather than a debt consolidator unless you can get really good terms, talk to the Business or Bursar’s Office at your school about a low or no cost payment plan. They may have one that you can set up through AFC to pay this off over time. But, be prepared here, the school does have the right to refuse to issue your diploma or to issue an official transcript while you owe them money.

If you contact me I will check with our loan specialist for the exact loan name and company for the prior year educational debt, although the specialist at your college is probably also able to tell you more directly.

Does anyone know of any real debt consolidation programs to reduce your monthly bills? I currently have a lot of short term, high payment/interest loans and I had to recently find a new job that doesn’t pay quite as good. I need to reduce my monthly bills (while maintaining my good credit of course) any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Please do not consolidate. It is not free, they will lower your payments by increasing the length of time until you are debt free, and you will take a hit on your credit score. There is a better way.

A. Have a garage sale and sell anything that you no longer need or want.
B.Get a temporary part time job, if you have one, get another. The holidays are coming and there will be plenty of temporary jobs available. It is better to have a no fun year or two than a no fun decade.

Here is a plan that can help you. If you work the plan, the plan will work for you:
1. Make a budget. Make the budget a week before you get paid. A budget is not a punishment! It is a tool which will free you from ever having to worry about money again. Put everything in your budget. Especially those annual, biannual, or quarterly bills like car registration, insurance, etc. Give every dollar you are going to bring home the name of where it is going. Add an "emergency fund" category to your budget for 25 dollars and save up until you have 1000-1250 dollars. Your emergency fund will help keep you from getting into new debt because of an emergency. If you can, set up a direct transfer to a savings account for your emergency fund. That way it moves automatically and you don’t even have to worry about it. You must cut your spending and live on less than you make.

2.First get current on all of you debts and make no more late payments. Stop using your credit cards immediately. Do not take on any more debt. Credit cards are like quicksand only the death is much slower. Make a list of all of your debts in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest. Use cash only for your spending from now on.

3.Pay the minimum due on all of your debts and then put your extra money towards paying off the highest interest one first. After you get that one paid off, you put the money you were paying on debt #1 (the minimum payment and the extra payment) towards debt #2. That will pay debt #2 off faster. When that is paid off, you put all three payments towards card #3 and that one will be paid off pretty quickly. As an example:

To start :
Debt #1 (highest interest): minimum payment+ extra payment
Debt #2 (middle interest): minimum payment
Debt #3(lowest interest): minimum payment

Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: minimum payment from Debt #1+ Minimum payment from Debt #2 +extra payment
Debt #3: minimum payment

Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: paid off
Debt #3:Mimimum payment from card #1+ minimum payment from Debt #2+ minimum payment from Debt #3+ extra payment.

That way, you will get them all paid off, on time, and pay the least interest. It will also help towards rebuilding your credit since you will no longer have any late payments. This works no matter how many different debts you may have.

4. After you get all of your debts paid off, add to your emergency fund until you have 6-12 months of income saved up. Put that emergency fund money into a liquid money market fund or into a Bank of America no-risk CD so that if you need the money you can take it out without penalty.

5a. When you have your emergency fund in place, add a category for "fun" to your budget. Save for a holiday, a vacation, a big screen, or dinners out, whatever goal you want. Remember to enjoy your life.

5b. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your retirement. Join the 401(k) plan at work and contribute the maximum. Your employer probably matches at least part of your contribution so why give up free money? Open a Roth IRA and contribute the maximum on a monthly basis. If you start saving for your retirement now, you will probably retire a millionaire.

5c. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your next car. Only buy cars, or other things that depreciate, with cash. Save up for a nicer car. That way you get the interest instead of paying the interest.

You can do it and it isn’t as hard as you think. Just follow the plan.

Yes if you want to owe even more money then you already owe and want creditors calling.

Forget consolidation unless you are using a homes equity to pay off debts. Most of those consolidators charge hefty fees and take your money. You are just borrowing from them to pay others.

Your better off to utilize a credit counseling service,

No matter which way you go, get it in WRITING, and it must include:

the total cost of the services
a detailed description of the services to be performed
how long it will take to achieve the results
any "guarantees" they offer
the company’s name and business address

Hope this helps answer your question.

I am owning an amount on a barclay credit card and also have a barclay loan. I am thinking of getting another loan with a better interest rate and then pay off the card and the loan so I can consolidate the two debts into a monthly payment that is lower than what I am paying now.

Is this something that people have done with any success? Whats the best way to go about it? I do not want to get caught in any debt consolidation scams that I have heard about.

Any advise/suggestions/web links would be grateful.

Thanks

I have lots of debts all over the place and have asked for similar advice many times before and unfortunatley each time I am told that consolidation is bad!

Try speaking with National Debtline, they will discuss your personal situation and give you good advice that you can understand.

I am 23 years old, I live in Southern California, I am a full time student, I work full time, I support my self alone, and I make about 1600 dollars a month. My expenses basically equal that and I live very frugal. I may have a little extra money left over in savings but that usually gets sucked up by a medical or transportation emergency. I have a 5 year old combined debt of around 3,500 dollars to a bank and credit card account. Then I have around 1500 dollars in medical debt to various creditors over the course of 2 to 5 years. I obviously have bad credit which becomes a vicious cycle but I want desperately to chang this and take the best approach I dont know what to do? Should I or can I file for bankruptcy? Debt consolidator? Pay off the debt in small payments ?( I could maybe afford a 150 dollars a month towards my debt) Then what do I do to rebuild my credit after I repair my mistakes?

What about medical insurance. Every school my kids have gone to has required them to be in the college health insurance plan unless they could prove they had insurance through their job or family.

I have over 15,000 in my debt, from me being extremely irresponsible in my early twenties. Now I am in so much trouble with this. Even though the collectors stopped calling, I cannot get a car or anything that requires credit check. I do have a good job now, and have been thinking to pay off everything. Now my question, what is the best way? All of my debts have been transferred to collection agencies. Should I contact them (collection agencies) or directly the companies I owe the money too? Can I negotiate? I do have some money saved up, and can possibly make all at one payment, one credit card after another. I am not sure about debt consolidators, as I ahve read they do not fix your credit by itself. My main goal is to fix my credit. Any advice is appreciated.

If you want to pay:

When a credit card is charged-off as bad debt, you need to understand that the damage to your credit is already done and there is nothing that will remove that mark from your credit for 7 years.

If you simply pay the collection agencies, then it will not remove the collection accounts from your credit reports. It will simply be reported as "Paid Collection" which, while slightly better, is still a seriously derogatory item. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, both charge-offs and collection accounts will remain on a consumer’s credit reports for up to 7 years.

The best way to take care of the collections is to negotiate a "Pay for Delete" agreement with the collection agencies for the alleged debt, never admitting the debt is yours (say something like in the interest of clearing up your credit history you will be willing to). This means that they will agree to completely remove the account from your credit history in exchange for money. They will not want to do this, but they can.

If they agree, get it in writing BEFORE you send them the payment, always send money orders, never allow them access to your bank accounts.

Have you confirmed that this debt is within the statute of limitations? Every state has a statute of limitations for credit card debt, which is the amount of time that they can successfully take legal action against you for the debt. This time period varies for each state. You should check to see if the statute has expired, if it has they can no longer take you to court and sue you for the debt.

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/…